Boeing launched its first Starliner flight with astronauts on Wednesday, beginning a crucial final flight test of the long-delayed spacecraft. On board is Needham, Massachusetts, astronaut Sunita Williams.
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Two astronauts blasted off aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule on Wednesday, headed to the International Space Station after years of stumbles and delays.
It's the first flight of Boeing's Starliner with a crew on board -- veteran NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
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The retired Navy captains spent months aboard the space station years ago, and joined the test flight after the original crew bowed out as the delays piled up.
Williams, 58, is a helicopter pilot from Needham, Massachusetts, and Wilmore, 61, is a former combat pilot from Mount Juliet, Tennessee.
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Students at the Sunita L. Williams Elementary School in Needham cheered and jumped up in the air as they watched Williams takeoff on a TV in their classroom Wednesday. They also sang a special song for her, and are expecting to have a conversation with her next week from space.
Williams attended Needham Public Schools and has a really close relationship with the teachers and students at the elementary school named after her.
Williams and Wilmore are expected to reach the Space Station on Thursday, after a 25-hour trip, and they will spend just over a week at the orbiting lab before climbing back into Starliner for a remote desert touchdown in the western U.S. on June 14.
